Direct Box

If you’re frequently recording electric guitar or bass ‘direct’ to your sound card and are not satisfied with the sound (hum, buzz, thin tone, etc.), maybe what you need is a direct box ?

I’ve tried a few (admittedly not the high-end ones like Radial engineering and the like), and thought some of my tone was getting lost somewhere, when I stumbled upon this great project designed by Bo Hansen.

So I designed a pcb to fit a 9045 Neve-input transformer replica made by
Audiomaintenance and built the thing, and that was it – instant smile effect.

The circuit fits in a Hammond 1590bb die-cast aluminium enclosure, just be careful with your measurements before reaching for the drill, there’s not much margin for error.

Enjoy, it’s easy to build and gives great results !

Important note The pinout of the BC560C is reversed on the layout, because the part in Eagle CAD seems to be drawn in reverse.
Just insert it with the same orientation as the first (BC550C) transistor and you’ll be fine.